Self-study
Advertisement: Support Omnicide kills more species of insects than any other insecticide. ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The ad concludes that Omnicide is the single best insecticide for home gardeners, both in general and especially for those who can’t tell which insects are destroying their plants. Why is Omnicide the best? Because of one supposed benefit: it kills the widest range of insects.
Notable Assumptions
The ad assumes that we should consider killing more species of insects than other insecticides do to be a benefit, and that there are no important costs being overlooked.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████████
a
Some of Omnicide's ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ █████
“Almost as many” means “not quite as many.” This simply reinforces the ad’s premise: Omnicide kills the most species of insects.
b
Many insect species ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████████
This undermines the ad’s key assumption. Killing more species than other insecticides do could actually make Omnicide a worse option for home gardeners—especially for those who don’t know which species to attack—because using it indiscriminately will kill beneficial insects.
c
Merely protecting plants ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████████
The ad never suggests that using Omnicide will guarantee healthy plants—it just argues that Omnicide is the best option available.
d
Omnicide is more ██████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ████ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████
Irrelevant. How profitable Omnicide is for the manufacturer has no bearing on whether it’s the best insecticide for home gardeners.
e
Omnicide does not ████ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████████
The ad is purely focused on the best insecticide—that is, the best killer of insects. How it performs against plant or mammal pests is irrelevant. We also don’t know whether other insecticides perform any better against such pests.